With both eyes wide shut

People who are bored in Malta must be boring people themselves. In Malta it’s never a dull mo­ment. Things happen all the time and polemics rage; whether it is the right to excommunicate oneself or to bring de Valette’s sword and poniard back to rebuilding the opera house or resiting the Triton Fountain, we are chock-full of controversy.

That goes to prove that, as a nation, we are, at least a section of us are, intellectually alive and kicking, a trait that has not been enervated by slow evolution or lack of stimulation to the national gene pool.

The Times online blog and other blogs prove, day in day out, how uninhibitedly people have become used to expressing themselves about what is going on. I find it an interesting if exhaustive exercise to wade through the plethora of comments that ensue about news items like the proposed impeachment of Pope Benedict or the Maltese WikiLeak to end all WikiLeaks in which, just after the 2008 election, Lawrence Gonzi was reported to have told the penultimate American Ambassador that he had a problem about forming his new Cabinet because of lack of talent and had also passed some salient remarks about how much easier it would be to select technocrats instead.

I have commented about this before, however, there was always something that did not quite add up.

I do not think that a minister needs to have a PhD in the particular area covered by the ministry, does he or she? A modicum of background knowledge, intelligence and the ability to select a good team to harness the machinery set in place by the civil service to keep the good steamship Malta going should be enough, shouldn’t it?

It would, in my opinion, be dangerous to have a minister who, because of his involvement or expertise in a particular subject, would wish to run the entire shebang himself or herself. That simply would not be practical, would it?

This is why ministers must be trusted to have good judgement in selecting their technocrats. The real job of a minister is to ensure that the common good is well-served and that the overall policy of the government is being followed.

In a government with a one-seat majority it is like sailing close to the wind all the time. The Prime Minister must be extra careful to wipe out any divergent trends as the boat will surely capsize. Therefore, while any government can survive the existence of its own ministers it is essential for the country that these same ministers are to leave the matters that require true expertise and experience to the technocrats. The wheels of government would then turn so smoothly that it would be like that antediluvian 1970s Thai Air ad when this almond-eyed beauty would lisp “Smooooooth as silk” which, I am sure, was solely responsible for the sudden surge in popularity of Thailand as a holiday destination.

I simply must say that I view the present hurling of accusations as to who was closest to Muammar Gaddafi while he was the supremo very idiotic indeed and very unproductive. The reality of the matter is that for the past 42 years we had no choice but to put up with this man who every year became more crazily despotic and dangerous despite his propensity for wearing wannabe Vivienne Westwood creations. We have not seen the last of him yet.

However, anybody who has any illusions that living next to or with the Colonel was a picnic please do take time to read the very poignant and unnerving Hisham Matar novels: In the Country of Men and The Anatomy Of A Disappearance.

When the Colonel palled up with the Cavaliere and the flow of illegal immigrants stopped, for we all know that it was a carefully-orchestrated method of destabilising Europe, anybody with a modicum of intelligence knew that something sinister and deadly was afoot.

Some intrepid Italian reporters soon confirmed that in secretly-shot documentaries show­ing trucks packed with sub-Saharan men, women and children that were being driven out into the desert never to be seen again.

Malta was uncomfortably placed between two schoolyard bullies… receiving hits where they hurt from our former alma mater Italy!

Any day now the Colonel will be cornered like a rat and the problem will be whether the Libyans will resist lynching him instead of capturing him alive to stand trial for crimes against humanity, which brings me back full circle to the international lobby that insists on Pope Benedict standing trial for crimes against humanity because of the child abuse scandals.

Putting Pope Benedict at par with Col Gaddafi is a bit too much, isn’t it?

Therefore, instead of merely using Libya as a risky but lucrative cash cow as we did as long as we all curried favour with the Colonel, closing an eye at his more outrageous outfits while keeping both eyes wide shut at his horrific humanitarian track record, we must endeavour to bring education and culture to a people.

They more than deserve to have it after all these years of being kept in thrall, at least before the Italians move in… again.

kzt@onvol.net